


Strawberries

by luxshine



Series: 7 Sins Challenge [3]
Category: Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-20
Updated: 2011-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-17 04:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxshine/pseuds/luxshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gluttony. Every flavor has a memory</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strawberries

The first time they kissed, he tasted like German beer. That was not surprising, as both of them were very, very drunk and the kiss came to be while they were arguing about who had the right to be in the hotel, who had the idea of being in a band first, and who had any kind of talent.

The passion of the fight translated into the kiss and the only thing that stopped them from taking their clothes off and keep *tasting* the other was that 2 fifths of their respective groups were still there, fortunately drunk enough so that they would believe, the next morning, that they had completely dreamed seeing Chris trying to reach Kevin’s tonsils with his tongue.

They remembered the kiss clearly, and the next morning, once the hung over had more or less passed, Kevin called Chris and they both agreed that what had happened would never happen again and that they would never mention it. It would be a secret they would take to their respective graves.

* * *

The second time they kissed, it was Chris’s fault.

The feud between the groups was pretty much forgotten, and they had been amicably chatting after the Billboards awards. One thing led to another, and without knowing why, Kevin found himself in Chris’s hotel room, watching an old movie and talking about their lives and how crazy they had become in the past years.

“Power Lord,” Kevin said, sighing. It was Nick’s idea, the one that they would probably see next year. “That’s the superhero name he picked up for me. Power Lord.”

“Sounds a little better than Ninja Man,” Chris was laughing, but it was not mean. “Still, I think it’s great you guys are letting Nick have that dream. Our guys’ dreams are a little bit bigger than a comic book.”

“Really?”

“Lance is going to do a movie, you tell me.” Chris lay down on his bed. “And even if the comic bombs, at least you had a say so on its production. We’ve had so much stupid merchandizing with our faces that I don’t even know if there’s anything out there that we approved!”

“I heard about the lip balm…” Kevin began saying. On the screen, there was a big explosion. They were reaching the climax of the plot, even though none of them were paying attention to it.

“Do I look like I taste like strawberries?”

Why did Kevin lean in and kiss Chris, nibbling on his lower lip briefly before plunging his tongue into Chris’s mouth? He didn’t know. He couldn’t blame it in the alcohol, since they hadn’t drunk that much. He just blamed it on Chris’s taste, which was salty, and sweet, and fresh.

It was different from the taste of their first kiss.

“You took off the braces,” Kevin muttered when they separated. Chris’s eyes looked big, and he was breathing loudly.

“A couple of months ago,” Chris agreed before leaning in for a new kiss.

They didn’t talk much that night, but Kevin could taste Chris all over.

His final verdict was that no, Chris didn’t taste like strawberries.

* * *

Kevin’s call got him unaware, before a live interview.

“I’m getting married in June,” Kevin said, and what he wasn’t saying was that they had never talked about those two nights, or about how it happened when they were left alone in the room. He didn’t say that it would never happen again, but Chris understood. “I thought you should know, before we announced to the press.”

When he hung up, Chris’s mouth tasted like copper.

He had bit his tongue hard enough to bleed.

* * *

The wedding was a somewhat private affair, with only family and friends.

Kevin would say later that it was a moment of sudden madness that led him to invite Chris to attend.

Chris didn’t know why he had gone, despite being in the middle of a tour. He had promised himself he wasn’t going, but still, he had gone.

The wedding cake at the reception tasted sour, but later, when Kevin had dragged him into the coat’s closet to kiss him with desperation, it was the sweetest taste he could remember.

“This is the last time,” they both promised, and they meant to keep it that way.

* * *

“What’s that?” Justin asked once, coming back from a little nap on the back of the bus. Chris was eating, watching the road.

“Strawberry cake,” Chris said, not really paying attention.

“Do you have more?” Justin sat next to him, and made a go for Chris’s cake, but Chris held the plate at a safe distance.

“Nope, sorry, last slice and it’s all mine,” he said, although it was silly. It wasn’t the same cake, it was just the same flavor.

At the end, he just gave it all to Justin and went back to his bunk.

* * *

After the press conference when they had announced that AJ was going to be in rehab for a couple of months, Kevin wanted to crawl under the covers of his bed and not come up for a year.

Instead, he called room service and asked for a bowl of strawberries.

He didn’t call Kristen until he had finished the last one.

* * *

They didn’t meet very often, and they were always careful not to be left alone. But sometimes things didn’t go as planned, and the space between them was less and less.

Kevin wasn’t an unfaithful man. He took his wedding vows very seriously, and loved Kristen with all his heart.

Chris wasn’t into adventures. He valued loyalty and had ended many relationships because he felt that it was unfair for them if he was thinking of someone else’s taste.

Every time it happened, they promised it was the last time. And it was always true, until the next time.

It wasn’t love, both of them knew that. It wasn’t even desire, because Kevin could spend months without thinking about how much he wanted to lick Chris’s back, to nibble on his ears. Because Chris knew the difference between lovers, friends with benefits and one night stands.

What they had was different from all three definitions.

When Chris felt down, in those peregrine moments when he thought that *N sync was really over, that whatever he did next would be forever cursed and shadowed by those five years on the stage, he would go out and buy a small strawberry cake, to eat it by the window. He never found one cake that would taste exactly like the one at Kevin’s wedding, not even the one he had ordered from the same bakery had been the same, but sometimes the taste was close enough and he didn’t feel so alone.

There were always strawberries at the Richardson’s house.


End file.
